SUBJECT(S): The scene takes place in an interior: a woman
and a priest behind the table receive the offers from another woman in the
foreground, seen from her back,. Two turtle-doves, or pigeons, are on the table,
whilst there is a lamb under it. The setting is closed by a drape and only some
arches and part of a vault can be noticed. In accordance with the old testament,
the Levitic prescribes the purification of a woman after the childbirth through
the offer of sacrificial animals. The panel described may refer to that. It’s
still uncertain the insertion of a sequence from a book of laws in a narrative
cycle. Other interpretations, such as ‘The presentation of Jesus at the Temple’,
definitely departs from what is there in the panel.

CRITICAL NOTES: The panel is arbitrarily inserted
together with other stained glasses, part of iconographic cycles of both the Old
Testament and The Passion of Christ. Most likely, both the cycles come from the
large apsidal windows (nII Old Testament and sII New Testament) whose panels,
executed between XV and XVI cent., had been scattered all through the 19th
century in consequence of the G.B. Bertini’s remaking (1835-38) and the
following interventions in the general reorganization of the ancient stained
glass windows (G. and P. Bertini 1861). Neither the post-war replacing of the
panels, nor the recent restorations (since 1962) have taken into consideration
the problem of giving an order and a legibility to the corpus of the scattered
panels that are in a great disorder. From a stylistic point of view, the panel
considered is homogeneous with the most of the Old Testament panels: monumental
figures, vigorous postures but helpless, there is no depth in the background,
the scenes are barely enriched of descriptive details and given to the
protagonists only. This kind of concept derives from the Bramantinesque
figurative tradition, that prefers solid figures fixed in geometric shapes. It’s
certainly part of the cultural background of the master of the old testament
window, keeping himself abreast of the manner halfway through the ‘500,
steeped in both the culture of central Italy and the northern interpretation of
the Romanism. The name of that artist has to be found out among the active
masters at Duomo’s glass yard that are listed in the documents between the
forties and the sixties of the XVI cent. Most likely, according to some
scholars, the artist is Giuseppe Arcimboldi. He was paid for a great number of
drawings (1549-1557). Some of them are certainly related to the St. Catherine of
Alexandria window which he collaborated to with his father Biagio; but, after
due consideration, numerous could be those of the Old Testament window . That
attribution is supported by the stylistic analogies with the artist’s famous
works. Others, shift their attention on foreign artists that presented drawings
between 1558and 1561 (Antonio de…., the Flemish Cornelius, Batista of Putheo)
but as for their personality, it is almost unknown and anyway, their
intervention was modest. Yet, Conrad Mochis from Cologne was the executor of the
stained glasses. He had been at Duomo’s glass yard between 1544 and 1569,
working at several panels (he made the drawings of St. Catherine of Siena
window). He was an appreciated and good master and enjoyed a certain
independence in his work. That leads to believe that as for some drawings where
unlikely is the attribution to Arcimboldi, there could have been Conrad’s hand.

CONDITIONS: in good conditions, in spite of the
several replacements by the Bertinis. 1962 Restoration by Ven. Fabbrica del
Duomo, Directed by Arch. E. Brivio: the dusting, the cleaning of the glasses
with detergent stuff based on polyphosphates, the washing with distilled water,
partial re-leading, protective nets with frames in bronze-marina and mesh in
copper wire. No counter- stained glass window.